Your Week in Gambling News - March 28 2015

This week looks like it will be a rough one for Marlins pitcher Jarred Cosart as he is the subject of some allegations that he may have been gambling on MLB games. This is based on some reports that
he direct messaged a friend, saying “I bet LARGE. Shhhh lol lookin for some help anywhere I can… Saw a retweet on your under play and hammered it.” The conversation was revealed in screenshots
released by a gambling expert named @ GhostFadeKillah. Shortly after the screenshots surfaced, Cosart deleted his Twitter account.

Cosart, in response to the probe, said “I was caught off guard by the whole situation,” and “I’m following MLB protocol and talking with MLB security.”
Obviously there is a probe into the matter being conducted by the MLB commissioner’s office.

If it turns out that Cosart bet on anything other than baseball, he will be fine as long as it’s legal. Players caught betting on an MLB game they’re not involved in are automatically suspended for one year.
If it turns out that Cosart was betting on games he played in he will be banned from play for life.

Arguably, the most famous instance of someone being banned for life due to betting is Pete Rose. In 1989, Rose was investigated for gambling on games that he and his Reds were involved in. He’d allegedly
bet a few thousand dollars on 52 Reds games throughout 1987. Not only did this put him on baseball’s ineligible list, it also bars him from ever being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bill Endangering Online Poker Proposed

In Washington, a House Judiciary subcommittee debated a bill that would make illegal all forms of Internet gambling, save for horse racing and fantasy sports.
The bill, called The Restoration of America’s Wire Act, (RAWA) would take away the rights of states to determine how online gambling is to be handled in their states.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the GOP will react to this type of bill due to the fact that it is, in all appearances, a bill regarding the rights of individual states
to regulate their own online gambling laws — it was also introduced by Representative Jason Chaffets (R-Utah) and backed by one of the biggest backers of conservative groups,
Sheldon Adelson,chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Of those that testified to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigation on Wednesday were John Kindt, one of the biggest names in everything
anti-online gambling; Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling, who somehow tried to argue for RAWA but ended up mentioning that making gambling illegal would be to make gamblers criminals
rather than decreasing gambling; and former U.S. Assistant Attorney Michael Fagan who did some excellent fear-mongering, stating that online gambling has been linked to funding terrorism.

Apparently Fagan didn’t know or willfully ignored the fact that online gambling that funded terrorism was linked to unregulated online gambling, which is what current policies regarding Internet gambling
are trying to prevent and what RAWA would actually increase. So, in a way, he made one of the best arguments against RAWA and for Representative Joe Barton’s effort to regulate access to online gambling.

The two anti-RAWA voices, Andrew Moylan, executive director of R Street Institute, and Perry Aftab, executive director of Wired Safety, argued largely for the rights of states to regulate their own gambling
and mentioned worries about government overreach: imposing various taxes and regulations on gambling that the states did not agree to.

New York Man Pleads Guilty for Gambinos

Thirty-three year old Salvatore Ferraioli of New York plead guilty in federal court on Wednesday for ducking a wagering tax return.
He was involved in a huge gambling operation based in several states that involved websites and resources from the northeast coast all the way to Costa Rica.

Ferraioli was a bookie for Dean DePreta and Richard Uva, allegedly associated with the Gambino crime family. According to authorities, the website on which gamblers
placed their bets grossed nearly $2 million dollars between October 2010 to June 2011.

If found guilty he faces one year in prison and $25,000 in fines. He has already been ordered to pay $160,988 back to the government as restitution for the taxes he dodged.
His sentence is to be determined on June 17.

The site, 44wager.com, was initially investigated by the FBI Fairfield County Organized Crime Task Force, the IRS, and several independent police departments.
It was eventually taken down due to the cooperation from a Gambino associate who agreed to wear a wire for several years to reduce his sentence.